"When the message conflicted with their expectations, listeners perceived the communicator as being more sincere, and they were more persuaded by his statement."
Here's an example from the September issue of CMO magazine. It was written by Taddy Hall, chief strategy officer of the Advertising Research Foundation, which describes itself this way: "The principal mission of The ARF is to improve the practice of advertising, marketing and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications."
Beware the major up-front advertising blitz. If a manager recommends mass-reach advertising to generate awareness and induce "trial," be nervous. Big markets are needed to justify big bucks. Big markets are usually occupied and unavailable to new entrants. Advertising, simply isn't very good at these things, especially in the current media marketplace. Still unconvinced? Then know that advertising by a new entrant in a category delivers substantially more benefit to the established leader—so go ahead and do the competitor's job for him if you must. We're confident that your agency will oblige.
And this . . . from an ad guy?
Understand that advertising is a very expensive form of life support. Car companies, banks, cellular service providers and brewers spend advertising fortunes trying to convince consumers that meaningful difference exists where little is perceived. Advertising is a high-cost substitute for relevant differentiation. The automotive industry spends more than $40 billion a year on advertising many "me-too" products—and much of that $40 billion promotes rebates. Now's that's a broken model.
I was persuaded. How about you?
Posted August 26, 2005
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Tom is timely, thought provoking and all about the new brand vision packaged as a Seinfeld stand up. I went to school on his ideas.
Jeff Taylor, Founder, Monster.com and CEO, Eons.
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Tom Peters
What I am persuaded to believe is that you have a great sense of humor that cuts to the core of a message. It's a bit like the lemmings leaping over the edge. I am continually amazed when marketing managers at our company come to us with anticipated budgets for advertising ... things like I need four pages a year in such and such so we can get some publicity. Yawn. All I can hear is the money dripping into the rain bucket.
Posted by: Dale Wolf | August 26, 2005 at 04:53 PM
Oh, and I forgot. Love the penquins!
Posted by: Dale Wolf | August 26, 2005 at 04:53 PM
That's a fantastic quote. I'm pinning that one up...
Posted by: Peter Flaschner | August 29, 2005 at 11:10 AM